The first movie about the Holocaust that came out was called “Let My People Go.” It was the wrong title. The scenes of victims of the Shoah were brutal; for all intents and purposes that was the content of the entire film. Then came others. So many of us saw “Sophie’s Choice,” “Schindler’s List,” “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” “Life is Beautiful,” “Defiance,” “Woman in Gold,” and others. Each of them had the Holocaust as its theme
but each of them was unique in where the emphasis was placed. But for all intents and purposes most Shoah movies have that visual aspect to them. The scenes are of human carnage, the death of innocents, the enjoyment of the Nazis as they tortured their victims. And then there is this latest film, “The Zone of Interest.”
What sets this movie apart from the others is that it’s all in what you hear, not what you see, when it comes to Auschwitz. What you see is the daily life of Rudolph Hess (Hoss), the
kommendant of the concentration camp and his family. There are picnics and parties, berry picking by adults and children, baking and cooking as women sit in the kitchen and compare notes. You witness the children playing in the swimming pool, having a dandy old time, the family dog romping wherever it chooses to romp.
It is a Holocaust movie, so on occasion the family and friends do mention the Jews, but almost as an aside. As a matter of fact one family friend mentions that she was the
housekeeper for a Jewish family. She says it and then laughs.
Oh, and where are the Jews about whom they talk? They are on the other side of a wall. If this sanctuary is the home, a beautiful country home with plenty of rooms well-furnished, then Auschwitz is on the other side of the wall, it’s where our social hall is. It’s not a half-mile away. No, it’s right there. A wall with lush vines facing the house; the same wall surely with blood facing the camp on the other side. Happiness and life on one side; suffering and
death on the other. But that’s life for these Nazis. The mother takes her baby out to the garden and encourages her to smell the aromatic rose.
We members of the audience don’t see anything that might give us pause. Well, we do see something because over the high wall are the protruding rooftops of the structures that contain the crematoria; and we do see the smoke coming from the chimneys. You as the audience see it just as the Kommandant and his loved ones see it. You eventually start
paying attention to this anomaly, yet for all intents and purposes the German family members do not.
In “The Zone of Interest” rooftops and smoke are all you see, but the drama and suspense are in all that you hear. As the family is sleeping you hear what you believe is heavy machinery. It’s pretty loud but it doesn’t wake them up. And when they are awake with that sound still audible, they’re shooting the breeze; they’re laughing; they’re looking forward to their sleep; they’re looking forward
to the new day ahead, to tomorrow. Yes, it is heavy machinery…the machinery of death that runs morning, noon and night.
And then there are the other sounds. What you the audience hears starts off very faintly. Trains rumble in the distance. The cries of women and children are barely audible, as are the gunshots you almost have to strain to hear. And if you haven’t caught on that Auschwitz the Camp is where it happens to be in this movie you might not be paying attention to the sounds at all. At least not at the beginning.
The camera eventually peeks over the wall. We see the electrified fence running the perimeter of the camp. We see the towers with rifle-carrying guards. We don’t see the Jews, but once again we hear them…and the sounds are somewhat louder than they had been. The trains are arriving; we hear them screech to a halt. The Jews – mothers, fathers, babies - are pushed off the cattle cars; we hear them crying, sometimes wailing.
What’s going on back on the German side?
There’s some negotiation going on. Men in suits talking to men in uniforms. They’re being informed of the state-of-the-art crematoria, and as a selling point, are given detailed descriptions of how they work most efficiently. If I’m not mistaken the deal doesn’t take place right away. I mean, after all, there are others who are manufacturing these ovens that are specially constructed not to bake pizzas, rather to hold and dispose of humans who have been first gassed before they are turned to ashes. Like the cooking and cleaning, the
swimming and hiking, they are all day-to-day activities in the lives of mothers and children and manufacturers of crematoria, and the camp administrators whose job is indeed efficiency and speed in their horrific tasks.
There’s a crisis in Auschwitz. There are SS men who are, what?, killing people and should be punished for this? Oh, heavens no. It’s a far more serious crisis for the Kommandant: there are SS men who are picking the lilacs and with that are destroying the beautiful bushes…and
they will be punished, demands the kommendant. Priorities are priorities, after all!
But as is the case with so many “professionals,” staying in one assignment was not meant to be. Rudy was to leave his post as Auschwitz Kommendant, and his wife was besides herself. After all, she said – and get this – “Rudy calls me the Queen of Auschwitz,” she says to a friend, and to her husband she reminds him, “We’re living like we dreamed we would since we were seventeen.” She insists she will not leave.
“The new kommendant can live in a townhouse,” she tells him, “but this house is mine.”
He, too, is upset. I’m sure each one of us would talk to people who we are leaving behind to express our thanks for their friendship, or their assistance. We might say, “I’m going to miss you terribly,” or something along those lines. And Rudy is no different; with a tear in his eye he too whispers his innermost feelings…to his horse.
We see him in his new position. He was given a promotion. Heck, how many people have projects named after them. Rudy does. “The Hess Project” is efficient. He figured out a way to bring the Hungarian Jews from Budapest to the gas chambers in the most efficient way. My, what an achievement to deserve such an honor!
And by the way, as all of this proceeds the sounds get louder and louder; no one can dismiss them; no one can ignore them. No one except the villains. But let me say there was a
tiny hint of humanity. Grandma came for a visit. In one short scene, Grandma hears those sounds; her face is visibly shaken. In a subsequent scene we learn that grandma has left the home and taken one of her grandchildren with her. Nothing more is said about it even after her daughter and their housekeepers look all over for her.
There is a most provocative ending to the movie. Rudy calls his wife from an office on the upper floor of an empty building. As he descends the stairs he stops…and he throws
up. Did it all finally hit him? It wasn’t anything he ate, and he wasn’t ill. His face reveals a sudden realization. Perhaps he was becoming a human, but it was too late.
And then we see the museum at Auschwitz in the final scene. There are women with vacuum cleaners getting ready to welcome the tourists who will visit Auschwitz the next day. And what do we see through the windows? Like the wall by the garden, on one side is the pristine museum, but on the other side we see
hundreds upon hundreds of shoes, and hundreds upon hundreds of suitcases.
You cannot clean what will always remain dirty.
Just as I couldn’t imagine yet another Holocaust movie, another one with a different perspective, The Zone of Interest has come on the scene. It’s a Polish film and it’s all in German…most interesting.
I literally could not get it out of my mind for days on end. Suzy and I talked about the perplexing scenes…what did this mean? How
can that be interpreted? Was the rollicking family dog to be compared to the barking madness of the hounds over the wall? On and on and on. It was too much for me to take in with one viewing. One week later I went back to see it again, this time taking notes. It was even better, no, let me say, more perplexing the second time around. I highly recommend it. You’ll have questions, no doubt. And when you figure it out, let me know…please